January 30, 2009 11:28 am

I just got back from NFL Commissoner Roger Goodell’s state of the league meeting today and will have a wrap-up of some of the issues discussed during the hourlong question-and-answer session. For now, I’ll provide some links from some of the things I found interesting happening around the league.

Blog search

Twitter

About

Gregg Bell joined The News Tribune in July 2014. Bell had been the director of writing for the University of Washington's athletic department for four years. He was the senior national sports writer in Seattle for The Associated Press from 2005-10, covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season and beyond. He's also been The Sacramento Bee's beat writer on the Oakland Athletics and Raiders. The native of Steubenville, Ohio, is a 1993 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and a 2000 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.

Feeds

When Hass was on NFLN he was speaking highly of the guy and said Rodgers-Cromartie was the best DB in this game. Then Eisen says something like, ” Word just came in that 3 of his picks was against you.” Haha

$8,304,000 There you go. That’s what it will cost to keep Hill (per Sando) if they franchise him (perhaps a bit less if the apply the non-exclusive tag) but that’s the gist. That’s a lot a cash but if they can’t work out a deal in the next 4 weeks, I don’t see any way around it. I don’t believe the Seahawks are prepared to let him walk.

Good point, as I don’t think they should. Dukeshire, I’m interested to hear your thoughts
on his brush with the law last week. Would you prefer we keep him? Do you think it’ll
impact Timmay’s decision to re-sign him?

I think this is absolutely key to their success. With Mays returning to USC I think the
next closest thing to possibly help the Seahawks right now in this draft would be
Michael Jenkins. No.. he’s not a safety but his physical play at the line and recover
speed will take a lot of the pressure off of our decent and not-so-good safeties.

Jenkins is big, strong, and fast. He has the strength to bump a guy like Fitz or Boldin
off the line and dismantle their routes. If they get by he has the speed to run with them.

I know I’ve been a huge Crabtree guy but I’m starting to lean more towards really solidifying
the Seahawks defense. Not many teams threw at Tru… now add a shut down
dimension to the other side. SICK!

Grab a Robiski and another safety in the 2nd or 3rd round and I think we’re dealing.

Not bad points CeaYoung. Most of the move Jenkins to Safety talk also involves him running a less than impressive 40 at the combine and consequently sliding back to the mid to late first round. Top five corner backs should be opening day NFL shutdown corners, not corner-safety tweeners who might work in 2 deep zone scheme or in a move to safety. I am all for drafting Jenkins if he tests well enough to be a man coverage corner, if he projects as a safety then he should be considered as a trade down pick.

Interesting that you mention Robiskie, a big receiver at 6’3″ around 200 lbs, with great hands, who runs good routes, team leader, son of an NFL receiver coach… I could really see our scouts and front office in general falling in love with this guy.

I wasn’t implying that we take him and move him to safety. Keep him at CB all the time!
The guy runs a 4.4 40 so speed shoudn’t be a problem. We’ll see how his combine runs
go but as of now that’s what he’s listed at.

While my post did build up to us taking a safety, or a guy that could move to safety, I
really was envisioning 2 absolute shut down corners to take pressure off our safeties.

Then in later rounds maybe try to shore up that S and WR spot. I just think that 2 shut
down corners would have an impact on the Seahawks team now more than any other
position available at number 4.

I agree with CeaYoung about the potential impact of getting a top saftey for our defense. But dont forget the FA market. There are a few real good ones out there. I like Atogwe from StLouis. He is solid, only in his 5th year and he comes from a division rival. It is all good! But an improved pass rush will also help our secondary so the best case is an upgade in both. Go Hawks!

For – He has been a guy who gets banged up every year. He’s never made it 16 games as a starter. It would be nice to have a guy like that play on a series of 1-year deals. His game is so physical that even though he’s 26-27 years old, it’s more like he has the body or wear and tear of a 30 year old. That’s not good. It would also be nice because I think he can be very, very good if used properly, which I hope Mora does.

Against – I don’t see paying a LB top 5 money if he’s not one of the top 15 LBs in the NFL. I am also against this move if Mora isn’t going to allow him to play to his strengths. It makes no sense to keep him and then let him spend most of his time in coverage. It only makes sense to franchise him if he is going to be a featured player on this defense, one who is put in position to make plays.

Ideal scenario – put the franchise tag on him and someone else out there wants to trade for him and pick up a 2nd or early 3rd round pick for him. Unfortunately, his weed incident probably made this unrealistic.

I’m more worried about losing Ray Willis, than I am about losing Hill.

Also, I’d like to see your top 15 LBs in the league list without mention of Hill. Hill is
very underrated in my opinion due to the fact there’s two other great guys playing
the same position on the same team. There’s a big shadow and Hill is under it.

And yeah… I would hate to lose Willis too. Kid’s got potential. I don’t see the Seahawks
letting him get away.

But i remember last year no one knew who this rodgers cromartie kid was besides the fact that he was other cromarties cousin. He had a coming out party in the senior bowl and a few teams noticed. Any safteys step up this year in the senior bowl?

TheWash – I would prefer the ‘Hawks resign him. In the end I don’t think his arrest will effect much. That is however, unless Ruskell feels this was more than an isolated incident, and there’s no indication of that, from what I can tell. The tag would be a big hit against the cap but I see no other reasonable options. DD is good and Hawthorne may develop but I’m not in favor of a “platoon”. Especially when the sum of that platoon can only equal, at best , what they are replacing. So if LeRoy walks, how do you replace him? A FA? Through the draft? I just don’t see any scenario that replaces the skill you lose while saving any money. In the end, it will cost more to replace him than than hit you take up front, by resigning or franchising him for a year, if necessary. Just my opinion.

CeaYoung – In your earlier post, why were you comparing safeties to a corner. I agree with you, when you ask to think of a good d with out a good safety. But Jenkins does not fill that roll. Russell must be replaced, now. We can agree on that, I’m sure.

The franchise tag on Hill is not so much because he’s one of the elite LB’s in the league, but rather to avoid losing him for nothing. It’s very possible Ruskell will try to trade Hill, but the recent incident has damaged his trade value. I’m sure Seattle will hope that the lowered value can get Hill signed for less, whereas Hill might be better served signing the 1 year tender and hoping for big things next year. After 1 big year, people will forget the traffic stop, just like most people have pushed Haynesworth’s face-stomping into the past. Then both Seattle and Hill have options. I don’t think Hill has the leverage to pull a “promise not to franchise me next year, and I’ll sign this year” gambit.

If Hill does sign a long term deal with Seattle, it’s going to be for a lot less than the franchise money on a per-year basis. Seattle might drop the tag if they instead want to use the money to get a Haynesworth or trade for a Peppers/Asomugha.

I never said injury prone. One of your complaints about franchising Leroy is his injury history. I’m simply trying to level out that ridiculous (IMO) list, and give some perspective to LeRoy’s place on it.

We welcome comments. Please keep them civil, short and to the point. ALL CAPS, spam, obscene, profane, abusive and off topic comments will be deleted. Repeat offenders will be blocked. Thanks for taking part and abiding by these simple rules.